Carter defends push to close Gitmo

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday (August 20) called for the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
"As long as this detention facility remains open, it will remain a rallying cry for jihadi propaganda," Carter told reporters. "The taxpayers are paying too high a financial price to keep this facility open."
Closing the facility would require the transfer of current Guantanamo prisoners, some of whom have been cleared for transfers to other countries.
The U.S. Department of Defense is also investigating the possibility of relocating some prisoners to U.S. soil, including at the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and at the naval brig in Charleston, South Carolina.
President Barack Obama pledged at his inauguration in 2009 that he would close the detention facility at the Guantanamo naval base and his administration is racing to make good on the promise before he leaves office. Recently, it secured commitments from a dozen countries to accept nearly half of the 52 Guantanamo prisoners already cleared for transfer.
But proposals to relocate inmates to places within the United States have mostly met fierce resistance, with current law banning the transfer of detainees to the U.S. mainland.

SPONSOREDSTORIES

Reuters is the news and media division of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms.

*All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.